What makes it easier to eat well? / Use Citrus with US Thanksgiving Food / Roasted Chickpeas

Blog Post: Guest posts: what makes it easier to eat well?

While I have many, many thoughts and opinions on ways to eat healthy food, I’m aware that one perspective can be limited. So I started this series to find out what other people were doing.

Article & Recipes: Use citrus to lighten Thanksgiving meal, not its impact

Whether it comes from orange, lemon or lime, the acid in citrus fruits balances fat, the way vinegar balances oil in a dressing. It invites salt and awakens the palate. Citrus zest offers bite with its intensely fragrant oils. Used together -- as in the lemon-lime sweet potatoes here -- the juice and zest create levels of sweet-sour-bitter

Citrus-Soy Sauce Turkey with Gravy ... Orange Pecan Stuffing ... Sweet Potatoes with Lemon-Lime Vinaigrette ... Citrus Mincemeat Crumb Pie ... Citrus Thanksgiving Side Dish Trio

Recipe: Roasted Chickpeas

Roasting cooked chickpeas in a little oil — first briefly on the stove and later in the oven — leaves their insides tender while adding crunch to their exterior; they make both a great side dish and a perfect snack. After you take them out of the oven, try dusting with a little chile powder, curry powder, or other spice mixture, or drizzle with a little extra-virgin olive oil, some lemon juice, and a lot of black pepper.

Lamb & Pine Nut Sausage Rolls / Beetroot, Citrus & Ginger Juice / Curried Prawns with Cucumbers

Blog Post & Recipe: lamb and pine nut sausage rolls

prep time: 25 minutes
cook time: 40mins + cooling time (10-15mins)
makes 40 sausage rolls

Blog Post & Recipe: Beetroot, Citrus & Ginger Juice

It's hard to describe perfection, but imagine an earthy-sweet jewel coloured drink redolent with the mild flavour of beetroot as base with a few citrus-y top notes and a hit of sinus-clearing ginger to round it off.

Blog Post & Recipe: Curried Shrimp with Cucumbers

The shrimp and cucumber, which is cooked just beyond the tender-crisp stage, keeps things nice and light to balance out the rich coconut sauce. And you've got two options for the sauce. You can use a whole can of coconut to get a nice and soupy curry, which would saturate and flavor the bed of rice, or cut back to make things a less saucy.

Baked Lemon Tofu Double Citrus Salad / Chicken in a Pie Shell / Deep Fried Pickles

Blog Post & Recipe: Baked lemon tofu double citrus salad

The baked tofu is surprisingly savoury because of the garlic and shallots, a good contrast to the sweet orange segments.

Blog Post & Recipe: Baked chicken in a pie shell

A variation on the chicken-in-a-bread-crust recipe previously linked on this post.

In effect, it’s baking a whole chicken and biscuits to go with it at the same time. Because, yes, after baking, the pie crust dough turns into a biscuit with one side having absorbed the flavors and moistness of the bird. Just cut and tear the crust wrapper as you dig into the chicken.

Blog Post & Recipes: Deep Fried

Pickles? Crumbed and fried? Yes please. A buttermilk dressing was made to accompany it, though I added my own tweaks. Combined, the crunch of the coating giving way to crunchy, tangy dill pickle slices was brilliant. The garlicky buttermilk dressing, with a heavy hand in coriander, made an ideal dipping sauce.

Coriander Buttermilk Dressing ... Deep Fried Pickles & Cheese-Stuffed Chillis

Good Morning Bread / Sectioning a Citrus / Breakfast Greens

Recipe: Good Morning Bread

12 g oat bran
100 g flax seeds
145 g sunflower seeds
55 g dessicated coconut
125 g almonds

Blog Post: Sectioning a citrus

There are two reasons to section1 a citrus. The first is for presentation, an elegant way to use lemons, oranges and grapefruit pieces in all kinds of recipes, from salads to cakes. The second is to remove the tough, often bitter, pith and inner membrane so that the flavor of the fruit can shine.

Recipe: Kale continues awesome

If you prefer milder food, you can add a little sriracha sauce at the beginning of cooking, or just leave it out entirely. If you leave it out, I recommend adding a squeeze of lemon juice to the finished product instead. If you like spicy food, however, you should add your sriracha after you've taken the finished greens off the heat; this keeps the hot oils from evaporating, and makes the greens much more spicy.

Breakfast greens

Fennel-Pastrami Gratin / Roasted Marrow Bones with Parsley Salad / One Blogger's Most Popular Posts of 2009

Blog Post & Recipe: Fennel-Pastrami Gratin (this recipe is an entry in a mass fennel-recipe gathering).

Give a fennel some pastrami and they let go of their guards. So imagine what a fennel, fronds and toasted seeds included, would become if cooked in cream with layers of pastrami and yukon gold potatoes.

Blog Post & Recipe: The Greatest Form of Flattery: Blatantly Copying Fergus Henderson’s Roasted Marrow Bones with Parsley Salad

If you can’t find marrow bones (we used beef bones, but veal are very popular as well), talk with your butcher about ordering some. They freeze well and can be used to thicken soups ... and stocks if you prefer not to have them roasted.

Blog Post: Top Ten from 2009

I’ve figured out how to see which recipes received the most attention from readers. So here are the 10 most popular with readers according to the blog counter I use ...

Spaghetti and Meatballs Cake ... Chocolate Zucchini Cake ... Strawberry Tiramisu ... Grilled Shrimp and Bulgur Salad ... Candied Orange Peel ... Stuffed Zucchini ... Zucchini Cheese Scones ... How To Make Homemade Pasta ... Pumpkin Ravioli with Walnut Cream Sauce ... Side Dish Salads

Orange Couscous. Broccoli & Leek Soup. Thai Beef Salad.

Blog Post & Recipe: creamy broccoli & leek soup

I can most certainly can turn some of the fabulous local broccoli and leeks and potatoes that I bought on the weekend into this bright green [...] soup.

Recipe: orange couscous

I came up with this little concoction that uses fresh squeezed orange juice plus dried fruit, slivered almonds and fresh chives. [...] great warm or served cold.

Blog Post & Recipe: thai beef salad

Hearty enough for a dinner dish [...] you get the cold, refreshing crunch of lettuce, the bite of the spicy/sweet chili lime dressing, and the nice heft of beef [...] The whole thing comes together in under 20 minutes.

Threadcakes. Cut Your Food Bill. One Blogger's Ten Favourite Recipes.

Webpage: Threadcakes Gallery

An online cake competition by Chris Cardinal & Threadless.com

Article & Recipes: 7 tips to cut food bill but not flavor

1. Cook at home ... 2. Buy on sale ... 3. Buy what's in season ... 4. Shop smart ... 5. Use less protein ... 6. Throw nothing away ... 7. Use what you have

Olive dip ... Bean dip ... Everything but the kitchen sink meatloaf

Blog Post & Recipe: woohoo!

Well, I’m not sure how this happened, but my 500th post just crept up on me. I’ve dug through the archives and pulled out my favorite 10 food recipes to share with you one more time ...

blood orange + cherry cream scones ... fresh cherry + raspberry muffins ... ricotta, green onion & green garlic gnocchi ... garlicky baked fries ... port-braised cipollini onions ... carmelized cauliflower with salsa verde ... rosemary + pinenut shortbread cookies ... rhubarb johnny ... ginger cookies ... occidental fudge

Marmalade. Fat.

Article & Recipe: Spread the word

Nigel Slater discusses marmalade.

Marmalade making is about as pleasurable as cooking can get. It isn't something for those whose only reason for cooking is the finished product. If the process of peeling oranges, painstakingly cutting their skin into fine strands and constantly checking their progress on the stove is a chore, then don't do it.

Article: Fat: Daring new book salutes a misunderstood nutrient

McLagan believes this epidemic of overconsumption is largely related to our [ie, American] culture of eating for the wrong reasons at the wrong times.

"People eat because they're bored or just walking down the street," McLagan said. "They're not sitting down and eating a meal in moderation and then not snacking in between."

McLagan further believes that including good-quality animal fat in that meal will start us down the road to wellness. "Because fat is digested slowly," she writes, "eating it leaves us feeling sated, and we're less likely to snack between meals. Eat the right fats and you'll probably lose weight."

Indeed, much has been made of the so-called "French Paradox," the observation that even though people in France have a diet rich in animal fats, they tend to be thinner and have a lower incidence of coronary disease than their American counterparts. McLagan suggests that this phenomenon may reflect not so much the presence of fat in European diets as it does the absence of processed food.

"We have reduced our intake of animal fats, but at the same time the total amount of fat in our diet has increased," she writes. "We have replaced animal fats with man-made hydrogenated fats, which are full of trans fats."